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LAUSD Takes Maintenance Requests Mobile

Students, teachers, and staff at Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) schools can report maintenance issues at their facilities by sending a text message or photo from an app on their mobile phone. The app, developed by CitySourced, sends the text messages and photos to IBM Maximo Asset Management software, which then analyzes them and uses Esri mapping software to show maintenance staff the location of the problem.

Before implementing the mobile reporting solution, students, teachers, and staff had to report maintenance issues to the campus plant manager. The plant manager had to figure out exactly what equipment had a problem and where it was located and then submit the issue to the Maintenance and Operations Service Call Desk, which would assign somebody to deal with the problem. The mobile reporting solution skips the campus plant manager and submits the request directly to the Maintenance and Operations Service Call Desk.

"Each year we found we were spending too much time, money, and energy locating, and reporting a problem before we even had the chance to fix it," said Danny Lu, business analyst for LAUSD, in a prepared statement. "By finding a more efficient way to report and locate needed repairs, we are able to respond faster to serve our campuses. The best part is that the solution is at the fingertips of most everyone on campus."

Since implementing the mobile reporting solution, LAUSD has used it to respond to more than 1,650 maintenance requests and reported that number will likely increase significantly this year after the district and CitySourced launch an outreach program to "socialize the application at school sites."

The Los Angeles Unified School District serves nearly 700,000 students, more than any other public school system in the United States. It is also the country's second-largest school district geographically, covering 710 square miles. LAUSD operates more than 14,000 buildings and receives more than 300,000 maintenance service requests each year.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at leilameyer@gmail.com.

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